Tools

My playbook of the tools I actually use. What it is, why I use it. Short on purpose.

Three rules run through all of it:

• Own my data. It's mine, not training material.
• Less friction. Everything connected, one system.
• Choose, don't get fed. I decide what I consume.

Browser​

Helium - my browser. Chromium without Google.

Why not Chrome?​

• Google tracks you across everything. Signed in or not.
• Your searches become ads targeted back at you. That's not a recommendation. That's exploitation.
• I went Chrome → Firefox → Brave → Helium.
• Helium keeps the Chromium engine, drops the surveillance.

Inside the browser​

• 1Password - passwords, one extension, everywhere. And if a bus hits me tomorrow, the people I love aren't locked out of my life.
• Instapaper - grab articles now, read them on my phone later.
• Unhook - strips YouTube's feed. I search for what I want to watch, instead of being told by the algorithm.

Daily drivers​

• VS Code - I live here. Code, writing, journaling, my whole Life OS.
• Claude Code - architect and main driver for writing code.
• Beekeeper Studio - connecting to my databases and working with them.
• Ghostty - terminal.
• GitHub - all my code and my Life OS.
• gh CLI - GitHub from the terminal.

Life OS on my phone​

• Obsidian - journaling and Life OS on mobile. I left Notion for this. My notes shouldn't be someone else's training data. Laptop stays VS Code.
• Git Sync - pulls my Life OS repo to my phone, pushes when I'm done journaling.

Utilities​

• Wisprflow - dictation. Experimenting with talking instead of typing. Feels more natural while working from home.
• Homebrew - package manager. Manages all my apps.
• Tailscale - VPN across my devices.
• Termius - SSH into my laptop from my phone. I can run Claude Code and reach all my files from anywhere.

Sometimes​

• Spotify - music. Not often. But sometimes I want to feel human.